When Technology is Prosecution’s Star Witness: US Murder Case Solved by Fitbit

George Burch is facing a life sentence for murdering a woman in the United States. The trial hinged around evidence from a Fitbit device and is just the latest case to have revolved around silent testimony from high tech gadgets.

When Nikki Van der Heyden was murdered while on a night out in Green Bay, Wisconsin one of the key suspects was her boyfriend Doug Detrie.

But Detrie had an alibi — his Fitbit device suggested he was asleep in bed at the time of the murder.

This evidence helped convince the jury that Detrie had nothing to do with it and the real killer was George Burch, who was convicted in murder and will be sentenced on Friday, May 4.

Mother-of-Three Strangled

Nikki, who was 31 and had three young children, was strangled and beaten as she returned home after a night out with friends and prosecutors say she was also raped.

She was accosted only yards from her home.

Detectives deduced that her body had been dumped in a farmer’s field at 3.58am on the morning of May 21, 2016.

At the trial Burch claimed he had consensual sex with Nikki in his SUV outside her house. He claimed Detrie spotted them from his bedroom window, ran down, knocked Burch out and then murdered Nichole and dumped her body.

Fitbit Flex Told Its Own Story

But Detrie had been wearing a Fitbit Flex at the time and evidence from it made it clear he was at home asleep in his bed at the time.